Oh my gosh I am so so so soooooo excited this year. Turns out that the berries I have been pondering about in a vague way all along the hedgerows for YEARS are sloe berries. Oh my word of happiness! Sloe gin is one of my all time best tipples. And this year I get to make my own! I have picked a gazillion sloes (leaving another gazillion for nature of course) and am ready to go.
I have perused a few different websites and recipes. They vary from the artisanal, super old school advices to wait for the first frost (no can do – they’ll all be gone by then) and pick only with your left hand by moonlight to more normal just whack it in recipes. I am going for the latter – most notably following Mr Jamie Oliver here: Jamie Oliver’s sloe gin recipe. I am not really much of a one for watching JO about his telly business but I do like his recipes. There are no proper measurements on his bumpf though – if you do want a proper recipe then this one from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a good ‘un: River Cottage Sloe Gin. I like reading around a few recipes then going with the bits I like and leaving out the nonsense 🙂
Step one: I put my sloes in the freezer. Everyone says to do this. It is a neat little trick to ‘simulate the first frost’ though really it is to split open the skins to let the natural juices inside the tough exterior seep out and flavour your gin. Now we have freezers we don’t need a real frost! FYI I used a rinsed out bread bag to freeze them in – no unneceesary plastic here 🙂
Step two: I have bought some cheap gin. (I KNOW! Cheap gin! Controversial! I live on the wild side, what can I say. It’s my first batch and I am a heathen – if it tastes nice I am more than happy.) I have one litre of this.
Step three: find a suitable glass container for its first three months of storage. I have two giant jars that had olives in. Make sure they are dishwasher clean or sterilize them by putting them in the oven on a super low heat to kill off any bacteria.
Step four: half fill with sloes.
Step five: fill with Gin.
Step six: two tablespoons of sugar.
Step seven: put in a dark cupboard and shake/quarter turn every day or every other day for as long as it takes to dissolve the sugar.
Step eight: Check it lovingly every so often, give it a shake and a pep talk and feel immeasurably proud of you new baby (or babies if you are greedy for gin like me).
I have a plan to have one at christmas and the other will be a special bottle. I want to save it until April when we will go on our annual seaside holiday with my best friend and her family and, next year, we will celebrate our 40ths with my homemade brew 🙂 Seeing as we met at University when only Fosters at £1 a pint would be necessary for a fine night out it will no doubt be a talking point regarding our grown up hipster selves 😉
I am off to take photos!
EcoTykki 